2011: Yar’Adua, don’t run, run away
By Femi Adesina (kulikulii@yahoo.com 08055001928)
Friday, November 27, 2009

This is the season of debate on whether President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua should run for second term or not. But before I add my voice to the babel, let me give due credit for the above headline to Mallam Sani Zorro, former national president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Zorro ran a column in this newspaper between 2003 and 2005, and when rumour was rife that former military president, Gen Ibrahim Babangida was going to run for president, he did a piece with the headline, ‘IBB, don’t run, run away.’ That is the witty expression I have borrowed today.

The year 2010 will be largely devoted to politicking, and any serious governance will naturally take the back seat, both at federal and state levels. It is, therefore, not surprising that few weeks to that momentous year, the issue of who runs for what office is in the front burners of public discourse. Yes, we want to know if Yar’Adua would run for a second term in office, and if, indeed, he should.

In the past few weeks, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been at its contradictory, discrepant best. First, we were told there was no vacancy in Aso Rock, the seat of presidential power, and that no member of the party should eye the number one position, since it was the birthright of the incumbent till the year 2015.
Last weekend, however, the PDP came with another confutation. Senator Polycarp Nwite, who had allegedly set up an organisation to champion a second term ticket for Yar’Adua, was told to buzz off. According to Prof Rufai Alkali, national spokesman of the party, the PDP “wishes to caution individuals and groups purportedly working on behalf of the president for the 2011 elections to stand down their activities for the time being and instead find ways of supporting the President in his efforts at transforming Nigeria into a leading member of emerging world democracies.”

If my opinion would matter in this national debate, then I’ll align my views with that of the controversial pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly, Tunde Bakare. The opinion? Umaru Yar’Adua, go home!
We all know how this president came to power in 2007, in what has gone into history as possibly the world’s most horrible election. And since then, he has been cabined and cribbed by a heavy moral burden. His frail shoulders are sagging beneath a load meant only for giants, who are not just giants in name, but whose consciences are also free from all moral impediments.

Now, let’s be fair to this president who usually strikes me as “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief,” on account of his delicate health and lugubrious looks. We have seen some remarkable things during his tenure. Bode George, a PDP big gun, for instance, is behind bars. What better testimony to respect for rule of law and due process. It never could have happened under Olusegun Obasanjo, with all his sanctimonious pretences. Equally, we are heading to happy days in the Niger Delta, with a successful amnesty programme, and concrete steps being taken to develop the region. We may yet see enduring peace in the hitherto volatile area, all things being equal.

But the question is this: should it take the better part of three years in the life of a nation to achieve whatever positive things we can ascribe to Yar’Adua? The answer is no. A government imbued with inspiration, get-up-and-go, and illumination, can take all these in its strides in a couple of months. What we can do in two or three months if we had the type of government this nation deserves at a time like this, Yar’Adua has done in about three years. If he eventually spends eight years, I’m sure we will be at the point a dynamic leader could have taken us to in 18 months. Can a country afford that kind of tardiness and dawdling?

At the beginning of this year, I remember that the president made some lofty promises. In very flowery words, he had told us: “Long deferred, the promise of Nigeria shall not continue to remain just a potential. It will soon be redeemed. Our season of renewal has dawned. The year 2009 will also be momentous in the critical reforms that we intend to bring to bear in our land laws, in the police, and in our electoral system… Our action plan for the power sector will be implemented, concessioning will be introduced as a novel and effective means of maintaining public highways…”

After those potentially inspiring vows, I did a piece on January 9, with the headline ‘2009: We’ll say Yar’Adua said so.’ I stressed that at the end of the year, with God sparing our lives, we would return to hold the president to his promises. We would assess him, based on his own avowals. Now, five weeks to the end of the year, what do we see? The potentials of the nation still remain mere potentials, not yet redeemed. No renewal yet. We have not seen the critical reforms in our land laws, nor in the police, neither in the electoral system. Where proposals have been made in terms of legislation, they remain locked in the National Assembly, gathering dust, while the two chambers tussle over seniority. Concessioning of highways? The Lagos/Ibadan Expressway has been awarded to Bi-Courtney for 25 years, but in a nation like this, that is too little, too small, with thousands of kilometres of decrepit highways round the country. And 6,000 megawatts of electricity? We can afford to wait till December 31, to judge. When we go to our various places of worship for the crossover service into 2010, would we need to go with candles and lanterns, or not? We wait.

As we speak, the president is in Saudi Arabia, minding his health. How many times in how many months? Like I’ve always said, anybody can be sick, anybody can get well, and anybody can die. God is the ultimate decider. But when your health is as precarious as that of our president, it does not help to get involved in certain exertions, leading a complex nation like this, for instance. It is not by force. If Obasanjo imposed him on us for the first term, he can decide not to offer himself for a second tenure. Umaru Yar’Adua, go home! You deserve all the rest you can get.

Definitely, those who are profiting from the inefficiencies of this administration will prevail on Yar’Adua to run again. The PDP, bestriding the nation like a colossus, with its chieftains luxuriating in the fact that no one is effectively in charge of the country, will want to present him for another term. But they will be doing Yar’Adua, and the entire nation a great injustice. Nigeria surely deserves better leadership than she is currently getting.

On April 17, 2009, I did a piece with the headline, ‘2nd term for Yar’Adua? Not so fast.’ In it, I stated: “Before anybody who loves Nigeria, and who is not just a power monger, can begin to talk of a second term for Yar’Adua, what they should be talking about are deliverables and timelines.” I still stand by that position. We can only talk of one term deserving another, if that term is good. Were promises fulfilled? Is the nation better off than it was? Are the people happier, their lots better? If we can’t say yes to all these, then we should just tell the president not to run in 2011, but to run away. Or in the blunt way of Pastor Tunde Bakare: Umaru Yar’Adua, go home!